GJ Town India

                                          Called on Pandora to issue a public statement                                                                         Retracting the false and misleading narrative!   Jewellery Market Bureau:  Recently, Ronnie VanderLinden, President- IDMA quoted the joint statement of leading jewellery industry organizations & said in IDMA's Weekly Internet News Collection - May 9, “Pandora sells only 50,000 pieces set with small diamonds, out of annual sales of the total of 8.5 pieces. From a marketing point of view, Pandora’s strategic decision to adopt the much cheaper LGDs may be a sound marketing decision by itself as diamonds made up such a small segment in their products catalogue.   However, the way and wording the company chose to motivate and announce its decision was outright reprehensible and irresponsible. This, therefore, is no small matter, and we hope that Pandora will recant and apologize. (Related Pandora’s News: https://gjtownin

New Natural Diamond Advertising Campaign Revealed   The third day of the 39th World Diamond Congress was concluded with a closing session addressed by World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) President Yoram Dvash and International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) President Ronnie VanderLinden.   WFDB President Yoram Dvash said, “This has been a World Diamond Congress that we will never forget.” He noted that participation had been high despite the long online sessions, and deemed the First Virtual World Diamond Congress an overall success. Dvash called on the members of the world diamond industry to work together for the good of the entire industry. “The future of the world diamond industry is largely in our hands.  If we adopt solidarity and unity, we have an opportunity to accomplish great things.  And if we update our practices to reflect the values and desires of the younger generations of buyers, we have a very good chance of winning them over as devoted customers,”

Are we able to adopt a different business model? Recently Ronnie VanderLinden, President-IDMA asked a question to diamond business that Are we able to adopt a different business model? Further inks, first, let us take a quick look at who we are. The International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) was established in 1946, shortly after World War II. The association was formed to help diamond manufacturers pick up the pieces in the aftermath of this destructive war. In Amsterdam, where my family is originally from, few of the Jewish cutters and traders returned from the Nazi death camps, and sadly, the City of Diamonds never regained its former glory. In Antwerp, the situation was not much better, but due to its unique role as the world’s rough diamond trading and distribution hub, the Scheldt City slowly but surely was able to rebuild itself. In Ramat Gan, the budding diamond manufacturing began exponential growth, and soon diamonds became a major and vital exp

Change will come only if it is Brought on by a unified industry! Jeffrey Fischer, Honorary President, IDMA recently made a call for diamond industry to stay United! He inks,  It’s only human nature: we find ourselves driving way too fast down the highway, rushing to our destination – a destination we may or may not be anxious to get to. Suddenly traffic slows to a crawl, forcing us to slam our foot on the brakes.   Eventually, we pass the scene of a horrific car accident. We think “that could’ve been me… I’m going to slow down and be more careful.” But the moment we no longer see the accident in our rear-view mirror, we forget about it and slam our foot down on the gas pedal to make up for lost time. Undoubtedly, this human trait is one of the contributors to the recent spikes in the coronavirus here in the US and around the globe. We are too impatient to return to “normal.” It is abundantly clear to most of us that this pandemic will be all the more harmful if we don

IDMA feedback to the eighth annual report on the global diamond industry “If we are to preview our industry's future, based on the eighth annual report on the global diamond industry – see the first item below - that was prepared and published by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and Bain & Company, we can be reasonably optimistic” says IDMA.   IDMA derives the related fewer takeaways from this report says, in 2018, the market continued to be volatile and the year's success will be determined by the industry's sales performance during this holiday season; 1: The supply of rough diamonds will remain rather stable in the coming decade but will be chiefly affected by the industry's financial challenges, the total make-up of the global rough production and the continuing uncertainty over the market off take of diamonds i.e. consumer interest in natural diamonds.   2: In our own midstream segment, the diversification of financing sources and the rea

Overall increases 2.5 to 5% duty on GJ items! Tariff measures taken to curb The imports of non-essential items In an endeavor  to strengthen Indian Rupee & to halt a growing CAD issue, the Union Government has taken a decision to hike up the Import duty on choicest 19 items. Out of these 19 items about six items are related to GJ (Gem-n-Jewellery) Industry & trade. The Central Government has taken tariff measures, by way of increase in the basic customs duty, to curb import of certain imported items. These changes aim at narrowing the current account deficit (CAD). In all the customs duty has been increased on 19 items, here are six which is related to GJ Industry & Trade: S. No. Item Tariff code (HSN) Basic customs duty From To 1 Non industrial diamond (other than rough diamonds), i.e., cut and polished diamond 71 5 7.5 2 Diamond

Binding Heads of Agreement reached post Year end with regards to the disposal of the Company's interest in the KEM JV to Petra's joint venture partner Ekapa Mining Pty Ltd. As noted in the FY 2018 Trading Update, the Nomination Committee is currently in year two of its three year succession plan and is continuing to review its Board, board committee and senior management structures. Good progress is being made with plans to make additional changes in FY 2019 in order to ensure the Company has the right mix of expertise and skills. New non-executive appointments are currently being confirmed with a view to making an announcement in this regard in October 2018. As part of the Nomination Committee Succession plan, a process to identify a successor for the CEO position has now commenced. In line with the Company's development from a phase of intensive capital expenditure and expansion to a focus on steady state operations, Johan Dippenaar will be stepping down from

GSI, one of the largest gemological organizations in the world, has opened a new laboratory in Hong Kong. The new facility will serve its international customer base and will offer easy and complete access to GSI’s numerous laboratory services. GSI's Hong Kong office will offer a variety of services from grading loose diamonds and jewelry to screening and testing jewelry for undisclosed lab grown diamonds. "Hong Kong is a major hub for the international diamond and jewelry Industry. With the opening of GSI Hong Kong, GSI has its laboratories in every major diamond and jewelry center across the globe.” said Debbie Azar, GSI President & Co-Founder. GSI’s new facility is located at Kaiser Estate Phase 1, 37-45 Man Yue Street Hunghom KL Hong Kong Ste. A3 (5th floor), +852-21229378.

Hundreds of Visitors Already  Registered for BDW from October 8-10 Bharat Diamond Bourse providing Flight tickets for selected buyers The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) in Mumbai says more than 300 visitors from India and overseas has already registered for the second edition of the Bharat Diamond Week at the bourse, to take place from October 8-10. Hundreds more buyers are expected to register in the countdown to the expanded polished diamond fair. The inaugural show, held from April 23-25, was attended by more than 1,000 visitors from India and across the world who did business with 100 Indian exhibitors of polished goods. In addition, the BDB is providing flight tickets to selected buyers to create more sales opportunities for the 100 Indian polished diamonds companies who will be exhibiting at the show. The buyers who have been selected are from Turkey, Thailand and India. The bourse will also be providing 150 rooms for international buyers at a hotel close to

Diamcor Mining announces the results of the tender and sale of the previously announced rough diamonds recovered as part of initial resumed processing exercises performed following the recent screening modifications at the Company’s Krone-Endora at Venetia Project.   The Company sold a total of 2,606.50 carats of rough diamonds for gross proceeds of USD $726,588, resulting in an average price of USD $278.76 per carat. Included in the rough diamonds tendered and sold were three individual gem quality diamonds’ in the special (+10.8 carats) category including one high quality 18.44 carat gem octahedron, and two gem quality diamonds weighing 18.57 and 14.70 carats respectively. These special diamonds sold for gross proceeds of USD $195,810, or USD $3786.70 per carat. Net of these special category rough diamonds, the balance of the rough diamonds tendered and sold achieved an average price of USD$207.76 per carat.     “We are very pleased with the results of this tender,

Growth registered with sales at US, China and India Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond producer, announces diamond sales results for August and eight months of 2018. In August, Alrosa Group sold USD 294.9 million worth of rough and polished diamonds that shows a jump of +14% YoY. Rough diamond sales by value amounted to USD 283.2 million, polished diamond sales – USD 11.7 million. Alrosa’s total diamond sales in January-August 2018 grew by 9% YoY up to USD 3.323 billion, including rough diamond sales of USD 3.256 billion and polished diamond sales of USD 67 million. “Despite traditional August market slowdown, sales of both rough and polished diamonds were much higher than a year before. Positive trends in diamond jewelry sales observed since the beginning of the year contribute to stable demand for almost the entire range of our products, especially for high-price rough diamonds, says Alrosa Deputy CEO for Sales Yury Okoemov. Basically, we maintain moderat